Puff Pastry with Four Turns

The ingredients are for 900 g of dough

Cut the cold butter into cubes

Sift the flour and salt into a bowl

Add half of the butter and rub it into the flour with your fingertips until you have a mixture that resembles breadcrumbs

Make a well in the center

Measure 15 cl of ice water and pour it into the well along with the lemon juice

Stir vigorously with a broad knife, gradually bringing the flour into the center of the well

Incorporate all the flour, adding a little more water by the spoonful if necessary, until you have a ball of dough that is neither too wet nor too dry

Place the dough on a lightly floured work surface

Knead it gently to smooth it out

Flatten the dough to form a rectangle of 40 x 20 cm while keeping the edges straight and the corners sharp

If you have worked the dough too vigorously, it will resist before reaching the desired dimensions; press it gently

Using the back of a knife, draw a line across the width of the rectangle, marking off a third

With the help of a knife, distribute half of the lard in small dabs

the size of a hazelnut on the remaining two-thirds of the dough up to the marked line

Leave a 15 cm border on the three outer sides

Fold the rectangle into thirds: first fold over the third without any fat, then cover it with the remaining third

Seal the edges with the rolling pin or by hand

Wrap the dough in a sheet of cling film and then in a damp cloth and place it in the refrigerator for fifteen minutes

At this point, the dough will have had one turn

After fifteen minutes, take the dough out of the fridge and lay it on a lightly floured work surface, with the fold on your left and the sealed long side on the right

Roll it out again until you have a rectangle of 40 x 20 cm with firm, even movements starting from the center and going towards you and then to the other end

Never on the sides and never diagonally

Repeat the process of dabbing and of folding using the remaining half of the butter

Seal the edges, wrap the dough again and return it to the fridge for fifteen minutes

The second turn is done. Give the dough the third and fourth turns with the rest of the lard for the third and the rest of the butter for the fourth and final turn, resting it in the fridge for fifteen minutes each time.